EMERYVILLE, CA— This Friday, Site Search Subcommittee of the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (ICOC) will begin visits to the four finalist sites for the permanent headquarters for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

WHAT: The Subcommittee will tour the proposed site in each of the four finalist citi (Emeryville, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco), first announced at April 13th meeting. Members of the Subcommittee, the public and the media visit for three hours according to the schedule below. Agendas for all site vis be found on the CIRM website (http://www.cirm.ca.gov/meetings/).

WHY: CIRM is conducting a bidding process to determine the location of its permanent headquarters. It has asked local governments, working in partnership with building owners, to provide approximately 17,000 square feet of office space at little or no cost. This will minimize the institute’s overhead costs, allowing more state funds to go to stem cell research. An evaluation team of CIRM and DGS staff members reviewed proposals submitted by the March 16 deadline to decide whether they fully met the minimum requirements in the CIRM request for proposal (RFP). On April 13, the Site Search Subcommittee accepted the bids from Emeryville, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco. Beginning this Friday, each of the finalists will host a tour of their facilities to the Subcommittee members, the public and the media. On May 2, the Subcommittee will finalize its scoring of each site visit. In combination with the first round of scores from the written RFP, the Subcommittee will then recommend the two sites with the highest total scores to the ICOC meeting on May 6. The Subcommittee will also forward the total scores from all four finalist sites to the ICOC.